Marine's Puppy-Throwing Video Draws Ire

Video Apparently Of Soldier Throwing Puppy Off Cliff Leads To Military Investigation

(AP)  A U.S. Marine smiles as he holds what appears to be a puppy by the scruff of the neck. The face of the motionless animal is shown to the camera as another Marine comments on how cute it is.

The black-and-white puppy is then tossed off a rocky cliff.

Whether the 17-second Internet video clip is authentic or a prank, it has drawn sharp condemnation and widespread outrage.

Animal rights groups said Tuesday they have been flooded with e-mails and calls about the disturbing video, which was viewed tens of thousands of times before it was taken down by YouTube.com on Tuesday "due to terms of use violation." Many people expressed shock and anger on Web sites and blogs.

"We're appalled," said Martin Mersereau, spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, in Norfolk, Virginia. "Thankfully, it appears the Marines are taking this very seriously, as we expected that they would."

The U.S. Marine Corps is investigating the video, calling it "deplorable and contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine."

"We do not tolerate this type of behavior and will take appropriate action," it said in a statement.

The alleged name of the Marine who threw the puppy, a 22-year-old lance corporal based at Kaneohe Bay, was uttered in the video and now has been widely circulated on the Internet.

Maj. Chris Perrine, spokesman for the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, earlier said the Marine involved could be based at Kaneohe, but would not confirm his identity.

Perrine was not accepting calls or questions Tuesday, assistant Linda Yokoyama said.

The low-quality video shows two Marines joking before one then hurls the puppy into a rocky gully. A yelping sound is heard as it flips through the air.

Mersereau said an expert with PETA has analyzed the clip frame by frame.

"There are cues in the audio that give us pause, but we have no conclusion, opinion on its validity," he said. "We feel it's absolutely necessary that investigators determine its legitimacy by speaking directly with all those who were involved."

The apparent discrepancy is in the audio of the puppy yelping as it is airborne. Despite the dog moving away from the camera, the sound does not diminish or fade.

"The sound of the puppy screaming doesn't seem to jive with his rapidly increasing distance," said Mersereau, who noted that the group is working with poor quality video from the Internet and not the original tape.

Whether the puppy was dead or alive before it was thrown is also at question.

Mersereau said the puppy being motionless when it was held before the camera does not prove it was dead. Puppies, especially when very young, sometimes go limp when being picked up by the nape, he said.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International said it was horrified by the acts displayed in the video and hopes the Marine Corps takes "swift and strong action."

Stephanie Scroggs, spokesman for the Washington-based group, said the video was the complete opposite of what she has experienced with U.S. troops. In November, the group launched "Operation Baghdad Pups," helping service members rescue and bring home animals they befriended in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"(They're) desperate to bring them out of that situation and show incredible acts of kindness," she said.

At a cost of $10,000, the group last week helped bring to the U.S. two dogs including a puppy that was found tangled in razor wire during a gunfight in Baghdad. The dog named "K-Pot" was adopted by the family of an Army medic, who treated its wounds.

[rowdytexan2]

Even if the tape is not authentic...are kids thinking this kind of krap is funny?

And we wonder why kids are offing their parents?

[partyguy51]

the video is probably fake, I saw it and the dog didn''t even move throughout the whole thing.

I bet it was made to make US troops look bad, which is more disturbing than the video

[cyberus-2009]

Yeah .. looks fake to me too.

As to the making troops look bad, lots of people want to do that .. and this ... if taken as *real* ... will enrage more people than a burnt out village somewhere in a desert

[scotty5720]

I was a Marine...Marines didn''t act this way when I served. These scumbags got in the Marines through the back door.

[dbtmellis]

take a look over at the abcnew.com thread about this...over 1200 posts...and counting.

[davideconnollyjr]

I just watched the video. The dog was real, however, it may have been dead, before it was thrown. These soldiers must be located, and disciplined pursuant to UCMJ. This is what war does to your sensitivities- don''t blame the soldiers, so much as the people who put them there.

[voxpopulus]

Puppies don''t move when you "scruff" them, hold them by the back of the neck. It''s an inbuilt mechanism so their mother can carry them. There is no way this video is fake, particularly if you see the whole thing. The marine''s name is mentioned at the end of the video, by his equally culpable buddy. Apparently he''s based in Hawaii. I trust the marines will remove both of them from service. I don''t want these guys holding semi-automatics or representing me anywhere abroad.

[ron-bot]

We are all larger than this. Does it matter if the pup was alive or dead? The cruelty is the problem. This young man deserves what he gets, and I am sure it will be dealt with, without a doubt.
Let this not be a reflection of all our honorable Soldiers and Marines. It''s one bad apple.

[voxpopulus]

These soldiers are not at war, and possibly never were. They are, apparently, in Hawaii. If they are this desensitized before they go, we can hardly claim that active service will desensitize them.

[straightmate]

This cannot be tolerated. It does matter wheather it''s real or not but only for the pup. These Marines must be punished. TOTAL DISGRACE

[foxmulder33]

This reminds me of Abu Ghraib. If you see how this is playing out in other parts of the world, you can understand why we cannot build an international coalition. I hope the Marines exorcise these few idiots who give our armed services a black eye. We have the finest soldiers in the world. These guys should be gone yesterday.

[voxpopulus]

Our soldiers, air force men, sailors and marines, in other wars experienced plenty of atrocities, and plenty of horror. Why is it only now we amake these excuses that they are "desensitized", that someone else made them do it. I knew one man who was one of the first soldiers into the death camps of WWII. He would figure he''d wasted his whole military life if he believed specimens like these now represented our military or our country. They are lower than anything that ever came out of that dog''s rear end.

[nothappyatall]

"why the hell would USA marines want to put this video out?"
www.jonesreport.com/article/03_08/030308_cliff.html
Why do you THINK? the morons filmed it to gloat about their ''conquest'' and probably gave it around to a friend or two, who no doubt distributed it further much to the displeasure of these two pieces of skum, I have no doubt they didn''t intent for their little clip to circulate beyond a few friends.
Thing is, there are at least half a dozen MORE like this and the military has not done anything about the others.
US military STINKS, and now you are seeing what 6 years of war has done to unstable bitter morons the military hires now, and remember; THESE GUYS are coming home and these shell-shocked jackazzes like this guy identified elsewhere as David Mortari, of Washington- could live next door to YOU and your KIDS.

www.jonesreport.com/article/03_08/030308_cliff.html

Here is the e-mail address of the CO of the base where he is stationed.
[e-mail]

[kampunghighl]

I wonder if we would have this level of outrage if it had been an Iraqi or Afghan thrown of the cliff. It''s said to say, but I think the reaction would be more muted. If you slaughter an Iraqi family in their home, our shoot wounded POW''s you get a couple of years in the stockade and a dishonourable discharge. Hell, you can torture them if you want, because the President says that waterboarding is OK. Tossing a puppy off a cliff will probably result in much longer sentence.

[voxpopulus]

I can''t stand the kind of stupid comment that says ignore this evil, ignore this need, because there''s another one over there. I know people who don''t give to charities because they say there''s always another one more needy than this one, and another more needy than that one. Many of us in society do no agree with cwazywabt on abortion. A fetus and a baby are two different things, or at least that is the crux of THAT argument. This is a sentient creature, that these guys killed. And somehow I doubt that if they''ll cold-heartedly kill a sentient creature, THEY share your religiously motivated anti-abortion views either. So strike two against them.

[dsr57]

We are all larger than this. Does it matter if the pup was alive or dead? The cruelty is the problem. This young man deserves what he gets,

Posted by Ron-Bot
----------------------------------------------------

If the Puppy was dead then he should "Get" nothing. You can''t be punished for throwing a dead animal off a cliff

[psychowasp]

Well, cwazywabt, too bad that sadistic ********''s mother didn''t choose to abort him all those years ago. I bet she''s proud of him now for representing his country so excellently.

[zootallures2]

Well, the troopers are in Iraq because you blew up your own towwers with 3,000 people inside to save on the electic bill and make tons of war profits. But, yes it is this sort of attitude that has resulted in what the west and Israel have become. You are doomed like nazi germany.

[throwrod]

$10,000 to bring 2 dogs to the U.S.? If that is true, something is wrong. What a misguided, absolutely idiotic waste of money. No one condones mistreating animals, but you crybaby sissies that scream everytime you hear of such things are an embarrassment to mankind - Get a life! Go do something for humanity instead of shopping for the best dog food to feed an animal.

[andrew_693]

Well I guess this is what they mean when they said that joining the military will turn boys into men. The question is what kind of men they become,.....sadisctic bast ards probably.

[andrew_693]

I still laugh about the prince of britain and how all the idiots out there think he has become a better man because he went to afghanistan for a couple of weeks to ride motorcycles and get his picture taken while all the other poor morons were sent to the front to maintain those leeches from the royal family. A lot of those that are sent there come back more stupid than they left, you can see them dying on american roads every day in motorcycle accidents because they live fast and still haven''t grown out of the fantasy of being the fast and furious, kind of like a 5 years old. Forget maturity or intellectual development. Then when they get old, they become newborn christians and start condemning everybody and pretend to be the pillars of community like the party guy, cocaine user and former drunk george bush.

[bandit5c]

As deplorable as the act is, if indeed the puppy was alive, I find it ridiculous the amount of media attention that has arisen over this incident. There are countless murders of human beings committed each day which gain little if any media attention. However one puppy is possibly killed and that merits national attention that sickens me the most. I have also seen the video and it appears to me that the puppy was already dead, just a sick joke that merits little if any attention. If you need a cause here''s a list of fallen soldiers http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/ rally around their deaths not this bs

[michellem99-2009]

Harry is a grandson of the Queen. HRH Harry hats off to ye.

[watcher269-2009]

It''s bad enough they were called child killers by some folks out there - but now they''re called puppy killers. You know these Right wingers - they don''t care as much for children as they do for puppies. This Marine - if he had thrown a child off the cliff would have been given a Medal by the Republicans - but for throwing a puppy off a cliff - the republicans will shoot him.

Those republicans...............

[voxpopulus]

No way is that puppy dead before it''s thrown. Look at one of the better copies of the video on the net and you can see it licking its lips and moving its eyes at the beginning. It is otherwise still because puppies young enough to be with their mothers automatically freeze when picked up by the scruff of the neck. These guys are getting off on their own cruelty. They think that being callous about this somehow makes them men. They also, worryingly, think that when they show this video to their peers they will be cheered for it. The frightening thought is that they may be right. And to those who say "think of the dead soldiers", these men are a stain on the blight on the honor of those dead soldiers. They might as well have spat on their corpses.

[busyness-2009]

Do you know what''s wrong with this? Baby animals cannot defend themselves. They rely on a creature older than them to protect them. To treat a baby animal crulley exhibits the worst kind of nature/behavior. If a person can do this, they can do anything. There is NO redeeming value to a person who can condone this kind of action. The U.S. military should take (punitive) action against this person. It is unaccpetable and unconscionable!!!

[voxpopulus]

By the way, CBS, your "illustration" for this article is glib and in appalling taste.

[fibonacci_]

dog killer!

[mike_frazier]

Child pornographers should be executed. People who torture children or small animals should be tortured themselves.

If you can do it in Guantanamo, then you can do it for an uncontestable outrage like this.

[samrensho]

Typical behavior for these pentagon welfare cases. The military certainly has its share of benthic slime.

[dsr57]

AIR BUD ! ! ! !

[ranger1948]

bandit5c
I would hope the point here would be the lack of compassion towards animals. Animals only try to live their lives yet we take more and more land from them daily to the point where thy have to coexist wqith humans. When contact is made usually the animal pays with his life. Most wild animals will leave people alone if given space. What is needed here is compassion for animals. If a person, marine or not can do this to an animal what is he capable of with other people. The world needs to learn more comapssion for animals and people alike, then we would all have a better place to live.

[skyk-2009]

Typical behavior for these pentagon welfare cases. The military certainly has its share of benthic slime.


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Posted by samrensho at 05:42 AM : Mar 05, 2008
+ report abuse

These things happen when you have to lower your standards to meet quota''s. Our slide into the pit continues!

[mcvet]

What is going on in our nation and our Government. Marines DO NOT do these kinds of things. Not the Marines I was a part of! What has happened to the HONOR and Pride of this once great organization? Has the SLIME DOG a few call a President managed to distroy all that was great about us as a people. This is something a bunch of drunk Red Necks do on a Saturday Night. It is BENEATH the dignity of a Marine! What has happened to MY America? The one that had compassion and cared about doing the right thing? Sieg Heil Bush

[denalano]

When I was in the Navy doing training at Puerto Rico in about 1978 or so an airman in my squadron threw a puppy off the second floor of a barracks. Not much was mentioned about it even though the military police showed up. It made me sick and angry when I arrived at the scene minutes after it happened.

[tweedle02]

I have lost any and all respect for Marines. It seems they don''t have enough to keep them busy, so they go out and find their "amusement" and the poor puppy is the one to suffer their stupidity and lack of respect. If these "marines" do this to animals, then what are they doing to people and family at home??? These two idiots need to have their heads examined, then they need to be thrown off a cliff like they did to the puppy. I do not see anything funny in their cruelty to this animal like they did. After they taped the incident they were stupid enough to send it to U-Tube to air. What became of the puppy? We may never know. Whether it was bruised or did it die a horrible excruciating death? All I know is what goes around, comes around. What ever fate is in store for these two "marines" will be justice for their actions.

[keithle1]

You want to send William F. Buckley or Truman Capote out to fight our enemies or do you want to send some crazy, testosterone-fueled, hungry-for-blood, do-or-die Marine?

WELL?1 ANSWER ME! I CAN''T HEAR YOU!

[leha190]

You can''t blame an entire group for the act of one. Our military is a cross section of our population. There are *** heads in every part of society. To blame the Marines is just moronic.

[chad55555]

Being a reired Marine I can say what I want about another Marine,THIS IS NOT A TRUE MARINE,THIS IS A COWARD IN A MARINE UNIFORM.
TO THE GENERAL''S IN CHARGE GET HIM OUT OF MY MARINE CORPS THAT I WAS ONCE SO PROUD TO SERVE. THIS WORM DOES OT DESERVE THE RIGHT TO CALL HIMSELF A MARINE, OR HAS THE MARINE CORPS CHANGED THAT MUCH THAT IT NO LONGER DESERVES RESPECT. SHOT THE ***.

[nikkicatt1]

I was so mad when I saw this that I went to my dog and hugged him and cried. Does this have anything to do with the accepting of criminals into the service? I read that the old rule of "Serve or go to Jail" is being reinstated. Is this true? Wouldn''t be nice if the punishment actually fit the crime? over the cliff he goes.

[iceman_1960]

"The U.S. Marine Corps is investigating the video, calling it "deplorable and contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine."
-------------------

Good for them.

And I bet it wasn"t even a real Marine.

More likely some enemy of the Marine Corps and of America, trying to make them look as bad as possible.

[iceman_1960]

"Somebody should throw you off a cliff."

Looks like the Moderators just did.

[iceman_1960]

My two cats love watching Youtube videos.

They probably would have approved of that one.

[patsw]

Keithle1 at 07:33 earlier today mentioned William F. Buckley, Jr. who died recently. Contrary to what Keithle1 implied, Buckley served his country in the United States Army as a Lieutenant during World War II before attending Yale. God bless WFB, our armed services, and America.

[johnstossel]

This S.O.B. should hang!!!

[iceman_1960]

"Contrary to what Keithle1 implied, Buckley served his country in the United States Army as a Lieutenant during World War II before attending Yale."
- Posted by patsw at 08:47 AM : Mar 05, 2008
-----------

I didn"t know that. I wrongly labeled Buckley a "Chickenhawk" in that story"s comments. My apologies. ["In his book, Miles Gone By, Buckley briefly recounts being a member of Franklin Roosevelt''s honor guard when the president died." - Wikipedia]

Also contrary to Keithle1"s post, Truman Capote served as an Army Rranger and received numerous combat decorations in Korea and Vietnam. Not many know that...

[iceman_1960]

"This S.O.B. should hang!!!"
- Posted by johnstossel at 08:54 AM : Mar 05, 2008
-------------

If he really were an S.O.B. he would have been nicer to that puppy --- it might have been a distant cousin of his.

But you"re right. He should go to the neighborhood bar with some friends and just hang for a while. Then none of this nastiness would happen.

[iceman_1960]

RE: Post by johnstossel at 08:54 AM : Mar 05, 2008

By the way, Mr. Stossel, why do you make the claims that you have won numerous Peabody"s and Emmy Awards.

Those all went to 20-20 at a time when you were an employee of that show.

You never won any on your own.

[random_radar]

Shoot a baby in Iraq and no one cares. Throw a puppy off a cliff and everyone is outraged. Strange people.

[suzella]

Throw that moron off of a cliff.